Ukraine Evacuates 1,000 Children From Frontlines As Fighting Intensifies (Worthy News Radio)

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

KYIV/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Ukraine says it has begun the forced evacuation of around 1,000 children from areas near the front line as Russia intensifies attacks. However, invading Russian troops also struggle to remain in their positions.

Russian soldiers try to help a wounded comrade as they attempt to escape. It’s not easy, as they face an artillery strike from Ukrainian forces. While they eventually all survived this battle, the fighting caught on camera underscored the horrors of a war that broke out when Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year.

Incidents like these led to counterattacks from Russian troops against Ukrainian forces.

In the crossfire are those whose lives have just begun. Ukraine’s government has now told parents they must move their families to safety from 31 settlements in the southern Kherson and eastern Donetsk regions. Additionally, Ukraine’s north-eastern Kharkiv region authorities said they were preparing to evacuate 275 children from 10 areas.

It came after a Russian missile strike on a mail depot in the region’s main city of Kharkiv killed six people, Ukrainian officials said. A further 17 people were wounded in the blast late Saturday, which is believed to have been caused by a Russian S-300 rocket, Kharkiv Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said on social media. All of the victims were employees of private Ukrainian postal and courier service Nova Poshta.

However Ukraine’s authorities have warned that a parent or guardian must accompany anyone under the age of 18. In total, some 1,000 children will be evacuated.

FAMILIES RELUCTANT

Kateryna Lytvynenko, Advocacy Manager at the Save the Children group, is closely following the evacuation. “There is no safe place in Ukraine for children, specifically in the areas close to the frontline. Children face great danger of shelling and coming in contact with mines,” she noticed.

Yet she understands that families are reluctant to leave despite the ongoing Russian shelling. “Usually, we see this as economic reasons. So families stay in their homes for as long as they can. And then, when they leave, they usually are evacuated almost empty-handed. And as they are evacuated to safer areas of Ukraine, they have to start from scratch,” Lytvynenko added.

And there are no signs the war will end anytime soon. And there appear to be growing frictions within the coalition that supported Ukraine.

Slovakia’s new prime minister, Robert Fico, said Thursday his country would no longer send weapons to Ukraine after donating ammunition to its fleet of Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets and opening its borders for refugees fleeing the war.

His announcement came as a boost to neighboring Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán who, like Fico, wants to maintain close ties with Russia, citing economic reasons such as energy needs.

At the same time, Britain has warned that Russia is increasingly receiving ammunition from North Korea.

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